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Canada / NU / SdFi-? (O- (CARD)) / GSC-30552
- Lab number
- GSC-30552
- Field number
- BS-79-134
- Material dated
- bone, whale rib
- Taxa dated
- Balaena mysticetus<, identified by C.R. Harington
- Locality
- southwest side of Rosse Bay, Ellesmere Island, Baffin region, Nunavut
- Map sheet
- 039 E/11
- Submitter
- W. Blake, Jr.
- Date submitted
- March 18, 0088
- Measured Age
- 2570 ± 220
- Normalized Age
- 2570 ± 220
- δ13C (per mil)
- -25.4
- Significance
- sea level change, emergence
- Context
- imbedded in beach gravel and sand on top of a moraine ridge
- Additional information
- two determinations were made; elevation was determined by leveling
- Comments
- GSC-3055 2 The bowhead whale, is the best possibility, considering the size of the rib and the latitude at which it was collected (personal communication from C.R. Harington. Additional Information (GSC-3055-2): Another section of the same rib used for GSC-3055 was carried out to test the effect of the flexible mold facing (latex) used by G. Fitzgerald, National Museum of Natural Sciences, Ottawa, to cover a bone or tusk prior to making a copy. Other substances are used on top of the latex to build up the cast, but only the latex comes in contact with the sample. The brand of latex being used at the time this test was conducted (late 1982) was 'Bultex', manufactured by General Latex, Inc. A 762.7 g sample was treated as described above for GSC-3055. Following crushing it was treated with 3N HCl, 1N NaOH, and distilled water rinses. Only 1.0 g of collagen was recovered for burning (and of that 0.3 g was ash); 3.0 cm of CO2 were obtained. Comment (W. Blake, Jr.): Obviously, the latex that must have made its way into the pores of the rib (GSC-3055-2) was not removed by the 'standard' pretreatment applied to bones. Not only was the age affected drastically (assuming that the small volume of CO2 produced did not cause an error to be made in reading the manometer), but the 13C/12C ratio showed a significant change away from -18.7%., which is much closer to the range of ratios normally obtained for bone collagen (cf. Blake, 1975a; El-Daoushy et al., 1978). In addition to the value of 6920 ± 90 years obtained for GSC-3055, another section of the same rib was subjected to exhaustive testing by the IsoTrace Laboratory, University of Toronto, in order to perfect their techniques for pretreating bone samples. Their best value is 7108 ± 20 years (TO-33; Beukens et al., 1986; Litherland et al., 1986; Gurfinkel, 1987). Together the GSC and IsoTrace dates provide a valuable point for constructing an emergence curve, and the ages correspond well with the age of marine pelecypod shells at 52 m at Cape Herschel (GSC-2525, 7210 ± 90 years).